Well my rather uninteresting looking piece of rock has a story. It was born between August 23rd & August 26th AD79. I can't be sure of the exact date, but it is likely to have been nearer to the 26th. The place: What is now southern Italy near Naples. It had a fiery start to life. Formed deep within the Earth where the Eurasian and African plates collide before being forcibly ejected high into the sky to fall like billions of others upon the bustling lively port city of Pompeii. It is a piece of pummice picked up from a spoil heap at one of the many excavations still going on around Pompeii.

Very interesting pics here by everyone :)

For an account of the birth by a person who was there click here
Message edited on: 09/26/2005 10:38

And every one said, 'If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

Edward Lear
http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ns/jumblies.html